Data can tell amazing stories. Just listen to Hans Rosling from the TED conference and you'll get what I mean. ComScore has released their data on Social Networking today and it's pretty incredible. Facebook.com has increased 270% since June 2006 . I knew the buzz was growing about it over the last year and so I tried it out. Now I'm hooked. Its LinkedIn and Facebook only for me. Okay...maybe I still Twitter a little bit ;-) ...

One of the nice things about FaceBook is that you're always uncovering interesting new angles on the people you know. Dominique Lowenthal alerted me to this exhibition of her photographs taking place on flickr. Interestingly, Dominique took all these photos with her mobile phone, which is embarrassing for those of us with digital SLRs. She credits the quality of her work to the "wonderful and insightful feedback I have through my Flickr friends" - another endorsement of the learning power inherent within social networking. Take a look - I think Dominique's a real talent.

... great social networking features that make it easy to share your knowledge and establish connections with others in your ... Everybody talks about how great LinkedIn is so a while back I set up an account to see what everybody was talking ... LinkedIn? After initially setting up the account, I did not revisit LinkedIn until recently reading a couple of articles praising linkedIn on Tony Karrer's blog . This inspired me to give it another shot and see if I can establish ... established and potential LinkedIn connections I hope to learn through others experiences and discover opportunities ...

... every month or so in a restaurant on Brighton seafront. The discussion centred on social networking: "The explosion of social networking sites in recent years has prompted some serious reflection on the state of modern friendship. While many ... users. Of the 16 hours that regular internet users spend online a week, 11 hours are spent social networking (hardly ... all convinced that social networking is in any way a cause of this state of affairs, not least because the phenomenon was in evidence long before social networking came on the scene. It seems likely to me that more credible reasons for ...

Facebook buys Parakey Facebook has just acquired an Operating System. A WHAT? Why in the heck, would a social networking company buy an OS company? From INSIDE FACEBOOK So what they also get are the 2 brains behind the creation of Firefox. Firefox's incredible flexibility and openness is what made it attractive to the Facebook folks. Facebook ... alternative to IE. eLearning and Social Networking When I talk about social networking apps being something to watch in the ... hanging out at Facebook, so if you want to get connected with people and become productive get into Facebook. Why ...

... revealed about myself in my profile, but then what the hell. I had no idea what to expect from Facebook and, a couple of weeks later, my expectations remain very fuzzy. Obviously I have a professional interest in social networking and am ... obviously not alone in my aspirations. Brent Schenkler points to the latest data on social networking sites, which shows how ... . We are taking social networking to an extreme where it will seem like too much of good thing. Getting bombarded by ... I hadn't intended to sign up with Facebook . I'm not sure whether anyone does. But Bill Brandon, the editor ...

... for the large social networking sites, he's: tried them all (facebook, myspace, bebo, orkut, linkedin, twitter, etc ... - Scaling the Social Web . The article tells us that various players are adding social networking features to their sites: A ... (bookmarks), etc. all have a social networking aspect to them? The point is that its probably natural for lots of sites to have social networking type features and functions for visitors. This is something we are commonly doing on sites today ... value proposition. The article does point out that as many more sites add social networking features, the issue ...

... for Expertise - LinkedIn Answers . Certainly, the conversations and the finding of expertise via social networks such ... Networks. Here are some thoughts on this topic, especially thoughts around social networks for learning. Starting with Social Networking was a blessing and a curse. Social networks have a tendency to be a bit messy. Virginia Yonkers told us - I would like to know how to manage the information flows in social networks. I have been part of Ning groups before ... how to ignore the chatter. How do we do this in the social network environment? And, I think that the course fell ...

Just a suggestion for sociological research in social networking software's. In a divorce you want to do two things: split up everything of value and leave the past behind while moving on without too much of a hassle. Facebook and other social networking sites make this virtually impossible. You know how it goes. You split up, you divide books, cd's ... there is something like a constraining order for social networks? I am lucky, my ex-partners and I get along just fine ... let go of those once treasured items and you go on. With facebook this is no longer possible! Ex-partners can ...

Wilfred Rubens who keeps on delivering great insights on eLearning on his blog (Dutch) has directed me to the superb wiki of George Siemens on Facebook and its benefits as a social network service. This wiki was one of the results of a workshop he did on facebook at the University of Manitoba. The wiki gives a nice overview of when which social network was started. After that he zooms into Facebook with a good analyses on pro's and cons if you want to use it in a ... social media. Read her blog for some really great insights into social networks and media. She writes with ...

I had an interesting comment from Mark on my article on Applying Social Networking in the Workplace. This statement got me thinking: I think social networks within an organisation will become tremendously useful - think of the opportunities for knowledge sharing through the creation of pools of expertise across the organisation consisting of people who would otherwise be locked into ...

... magazine last week, in an article entitled Face to face with social networking. Apparently, in the UK: 20% of firms use social networking sites to research applications. 68% use search engines to check candidates. 70% of London firms block the use of Facebook at work. 51% of recruiters think social networking poses a challenge to traditional recruitment. 60% of firms would check a candidate's blog. 65% of university students are Facebook users. Facebook's UK ... Facebook profile would have been if I'd been looking for a 'proper job'. Clearly, anyone contributing to the Web 2.0 space ...

These guys keep crankin' 'em out. I love it! Social Networking is also Social Learning. I think deepest learning comes from human connections and Social Networking tools make it easier than ever to connect to the people you want to learn something from, or with whom you are willing to learn with, together, collaboratively. Before there was online social networking I remember reading business books about the power of the "rollodex": Important successful people ALWAYS had a massive rollodex. At the time I remember thinking about the dozen or so people that I had on a piece ...

I just read David Warlicks' post - I Just Don't Get it Yet â€" Social Networks where he discusses his recent experience with several Ning generated social networks including: I've joined Library 2.0 , School 2.0 , and Classroom 2.0 ... dull to know it. So please explain. I've tried out several social network tools and have had a similar reaction. I ... social networks that will take off, but any network that is a closed system needs something as a hook to achieve critical ... Facebook page. I have an unflattering picture of me there, a place to put a blog, a profile (which I've scaled ...

Too Many Social Networks? : eLearning Technology I just read David Warlicks post - I Just Donâ??t Get it Yet â?? Social Networks where he discusses his recent experience with several Ning generated social networks including: Iâ??ve joined Library 2.0 , School 2.0 , and Classroom ... head, but Iâ??m to dull to know it. So please explain. Ive tried out several social network tools and have had a ... something around social networks that will take off, but any network that is a closed system needs something as a hook ...

I wrote this article back in November for Learning Technologies magazine. I'm placing it here as a matter of record and to note that social networking tools are clearly important to accelerating the (effective) learning process. --------------------------------- We are social animals by nature, so any technology that allows us to connect more efficiently and effectively with others will ...

... etc. This social networking site is a great way to connect with other faculty members at other institutions working on ... If you are a faculty member or administrative staff at a college or university then you might be tempted to check out Academia.edu . Probably the simplest way I can describe it is to call it "Facebook for Academics." All institutions are organized on the top level of a 'tree' (i.e. an organizational chart). The second level of the chart shows the ... fits nicely into the Connectivism course topic for week 5: Groups and Networks.

Building and Social Networking. Build relationships online, nurture a community, engage and inspire others to action.  Tools to help:   Ning, LinkedIn, Facebook, MySpace... (20+ hours per week.)   What're my takeaways ... , but I'm real close. Unfortunately, my social media activities kinda dropped off while I was off-grid  Is that ... ?  What's the proper amount of time to invest in social media? Ironically, I've actually felt that I don't do enough.  Even as I champion to my friends the need to budget time investments in social media, I admittedly, ...

I’ve been using Twitter for a number of weeks now, and that, combined with several recent social networking activities prompted this reflection.  There’s lots more for me to learn, of course, but there are powerful reasons to ... .  Sometimes it’s just personal things, which gives them richer dimension.  However, much like the Facebook opportunity ... also a way to track what’s hot and new. I’m still exploring other uses of Facebook.  My tweets now appear ... all of them. I really appreciated Tony Karrer’s pointer on how to use LinkedIn , by the way. I’ve seen ...

2007 Communities / Social Networking and LMS Merger : eLearning Technology ... of the eLearning simulation tool - Firefly) and Shared Insights - a community / business social networking software ... + community / social networking. Im not sure I quite get what that means yet. I wonder if mzinga does? The description ... / Social Networking and LMS Merger Permalink: Communities / Social Networking and LMS Merger ... most prolific contributors are, or whose contributions are rated most highly, or whose social network is the most ...

... pure blogging vs LinkedIn Answers and other social networking platform-based discussion venues? I consider LinkedIn Answers to be quite a different animal. The way I use LinkedIn Answers is to ask specific questions (never open ended or ... can't seem to find by searching LinkedIn normally. This question goes only to my network and then also out to the rest of ... both your own and your indirect network. Social Network based discussions (for example a Ning network) act like ... , the question above would probably be okay in LinkedIn Answers, but you might want to change it a bit to be more ...

I know there's a lot of social networking tools out there, but looking purely at the educational possibilities, I quite like the look of Infodit .  Intodit allows you to establish a group site with a combination of wiki and forum functionality. It does this without undue complication and I can see it being a great way of focusing attention on an educational topic or project. By the way, I joined the Coldplay fan group!

Chart shows percentage of teens and tweens and what social networking/Web 2.0 activities they do weekly online ... social networking is now so deeply embedded in the lifestyles of tweens and teens that it rivals television for their attention...Nine- to 17-year-olds report spending almost as much time using social networking services and Web sites as they spend watching television. Among teens, that amounts to about 9 hours a week on social networking activities ... , many students engage in highly creative activities on social networking sites...Overall, an astonishing 96 percent ...

Tony Karrer of the eLearning Technology blog invited me to take part in a new site called eLearning Learning . This new site brings a collection of ed tech related blogs together making it very easy to research a variety of topics without jumping from blog to blog. Tony describes it best with this quote; "This is the beginning of a community portal where the community will help to collect and organize the best content from blogs and web sites. The goal is to create a place where it's relatively easy to find current content and highly relevant content surrounding eLearning." - Tony ...

People I talk to daily seem amazed at the social networking craze and have a genuine interest in getting started but don't have a clue where to start. Here are some links that are specifically geared to newbies and provide a great overview of these services and how to get started using them. Facebook Twitter Flickr Google Reader ...

The more and more I get into the OpenSource Learning project with the Masie Consortium, the more I see the incredible possibilities. XplanaZine has taken the social networking idea in the world of quiz creation . Cool! I hadn't thought of that yet. Multiple people helping to craft the perfect assessments instead of random content experts writing their own and trying to be tricky...or worse funny. I'm sure you all have taken a quiz where the last choice is always something completely off-the-wall, or goofy...Yikes, I've even written a few of those in my past. "According ...

... source implementations of these distributed social networking concepts. or as Chris puts it : "to build a social network ... seeing distributed, open social network solutions is encouraging. ... there. This aligns pretty well with my experience of Learning and Networking with a Blog . It appears to be heading in a good direction where you can have a distributed understanding of the social graph. While that sounds somewhat like ... social graph across sites. This is also a good direction in that it starts with something that you own as an ...

Business, Golden Gate University, San Francisco, CA. Developed a course on social networking for business Will ... databases to research social networking Past predictions about online communities assumed text because that was what was ... ;instructors may not remember every student they taught (Provided a bunch of stats on social networking usage–I’m not taking notes on all that) Many businesses consider time on social networking sites wasted, but not all Wachovia is testing social networking for sharing information and developing community within the community Businesses ...

Social Networks, the Next Educational Tool? : “At last year's Educause conference, in Seattle, educators pondered what to do about students' technology habits. Should they try to change them? Accept that they're here to stay? Try to co-opt them? A lot can change in a year. Many colleges seem to have moved on from the question of whether to follow students' lead on technologies they prefer, from Web-based e-mail to Facebook to text messaging. Now, the dilemma they ... management systems. We’re adding blogs, wikis, social networking, virtual worlds, and numerous other technologies ...

Improved collective performance: Investing in Web 2.0 - Knowledge Board We are all very familiar with social networking platforms such as MySpace, Flikr, YouTube, Twitter, Bebo and Facebook. They are almost household names. This is not so of a new generation of social networking technology, which is being used to provide software services under trading names such as Ning, CollectiveX, Sossoon, Hiitch, Huddle, Mzinga, British Telecom's Workspace (project ... . KM Asia: keynote on social computing - Dave Snowden of Cognitive Edge Includes podcast and slides (pdf).